Slow-playing golfers, you have your patron saint.

President Obama wrapped up his holiday vacation on Sunday with a round of golf. Check that: he started playing a round of golf. From man-about-D.C. Jake Tapper at ABC News:

[...] the president played another round of golf at Luana Hills country club in Kailua. His golfing companions were friends from Hawaii and Chicago, Bobby Titcomb, Mike Ramos, and Marty Nesbitt.

The president did not get in 18 holes today, due to darkness setting in at sunset, although the group played for over five hours.

Five hours? FIVE HOURS? Come on, Brack-O! Ben Crane looks at you and requests that you pick up the pace! (Aside: You think the foursome behind the president kept getting more and more fed up with the slow play, and one of them, after too many on-course beers, put a drive into the middle of their foursome? After which, surely, the Secret Service put a double-tap into the middle of his chest. This probably didn't happen, but it could have.)

On New Year's Day, the LPGA released its 2011 schedule. Problem is, it was the scheduling equivalent of serving up an undercooked pie. (I was going to say "turkey," but that would add an element of criticism -- and trichinosis -- that wasn't intended.) The leaked schedule has 24 events as well as the Solheim Cup in Ireland. That's down from 26 events in 2010, though two were unofficial events.

An LPGA official blamed a "computer glitch" for the early release of the "incomplete" schedule. We'll do a complete breakdown of the schedule once it hits officially. For now, though, the above logo is all you're gonna get. Make your travel plans now!

"Hi there, friend! What's it going to take to put you behind the wheel of this gently-used Camry? Only got a few hundred miles on it, only driven once a week. And fresh tires, too! Now, we've got all kinds of financing plans ..."

In 2010, the Nationwide series rolled out a new car with a 110-inch wheelbase, the same as Sprint Cup cars, in four races. Which is nice and all, except for the fact that the old Nationwide cars had 105-inch wheelbases.

In other words, there's a whole passel of 105-inch Nationwide cars with no particular place to go. Who wants to make an offer?

The fine folks at Toyota give us a behind-the-scenes look at what will happen to those now-antiquated 105'ers. Behold:

Some will be used in ARCA competitions, which permit the use of both 105- and 110-inch chassis. The series indicated that a key reason for using both wheelbases was to create a market for the leftover 105-inch chassis inventory. ARCA pulled the same maneuver when the Sprint Cup series switched over to

You probably don't know the name Billy Joe Patton. He didn't make The Devil Ball 100 list of the most important golfers of all time; shoot, he probably wouldn't make the top 500. But he was a significant figure in the game, and in many ways was much closer to us than almost anyone on that list will ever be.

Patton died on New Year's Day at age 88, and although he hadn't played competitively in years, he's nonetheless fondly remembered by a wide swath of the golfing public. He was a lifelong amateur, but played well enough to earn his way onto five Walker Cup teams in the middle of the 20th century.

While he won numerous amateur championships, his best-known tournament is probably the one he didn't win: the playoff he just missed playing in at a little club in a backwater Georgia town.

The year was 1954, and Sam Snead and Ben Hogan had battled to a draw in Augusta. Patton was on pace to join them in a playoff thanks to a hole-in-one on the sixth. But on the 13th, like Phil Mickelson

While other drivers are off getting married or working through honey-do lists or whatever, Robby Gordon is in Argentina running in the Dakar Rally. He's got plenty of fans down there, and during one of his shakedown runs, he got up close and personal with one of them:

You can keep up with Gordon's Dakar Rally exploits over at his website. After the first stage, he was running eighth; he's got 12 more stages to go. Monday is a 201-mile stage through the mountains. Go get 'em, Robby!

Were it not for Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer would be the runaway favorite for breakout player of 2010. He reached No. 1 on the European Tour, he won a major, he won the Race to Dubai, he played in the Ryder Cup, and he won at St. Andrews in the Dunhill Cup. Any of those would be a good career; Kaymer did all of 'em in a single year. That's not bad.

But for all his accolades, one honor still eludes him. Kaymer is one of the most talented golfers on the planet, but he's never achieved that tough-but-not-impossible feat: the hole-in-one.

He's 25 years old, he's played tens of thousands of holes all over the world, and he's never achieved that mythical ace. Old ladies, kids, people with absolutely zero talent but enough strength to power the ball down the fairway and enough luck to hit it straight just once --all those people have carded aces, and not Kaymer? Huh.

The professional record for holes-in-one is held by Art Wall Jr., who carded 45 over his career. Second place is Jack

Kyle Busch wrapped his 2010 on a high note with his wedding to Samantha Sarcinella at the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on New Year's Eve.

"This is the day, the moment, the best time of the yr," Kyle Tweeted minutes before the show got rolling. "Ready to spend the rest of my life w my true love!. At church, ready to marry."

One bridal website said the theme of the wedding was "ostrich and peacock feathers," which is appropriate because ... wait, you know what? This is their happy day, so let's shelve the snark for just the briefest of moments. Oh, but the jokes that could be written ...

Anyway, Radar Online has some photos of the happy couple, taken by those filthy paparazzi (or, judging from the angle, by some of the guests). The couple will be showing all the photos, video, etc. in March on the Style Network, a network which I can absolutely guarantee you Kyle did not know existed before this.

Regardless, we wish the best for the happy couple, this year and beyond. And what did you

You may still be bleary-eyed from that New Year's Eve party -- and we know you haven't written your Christmas thank-you notes yet, so don't even try to blow that by us -- but the 2011 golf season officially gets underway this week as the Hyundai Tournament of Champions begins at the lovely Plantation Course at Kapalua. Yes, yes, for most casual fans golf doesn't truly begin until Masters Sunday, but for us diehards, we're rolling right now, baby!

As befits its name -- the second half, at least -- the HTOC invites all the tournament champions from the previous year to do battle. That means well-known faces like Anthony Kim, Bubba Watson, Camilo Villegas, Jim Furyk and Ernie Els are in attendance, along with "wait, he won last year?" guys like Jason Bohn, Bill Haas and Derek Lamely. Not in attendance: Phil Mickelson, who won in Augusta last year. Also not in attendance: Tiger Woods, who ... er, never mind.

Anyway, this will be a good chance for you to get back in the swing of golf --